Happy Holidays from Bear Lake!!

Hey Everyone,

We wanted to wish all of you happy holidays from the Bear Lake crew! It's that time of year: the temperature is dropping fast and the snow's about to start flying, which means it's time for us to head back into the studio to start working on this coming year's release. We are eager to start working, and have some new tunes that we can't wait to bring to you, so please stop bye www.bearlakemusic.com to stay updated on our progress. Until then, please enjoy our gift of a FREE SONG at www.bearlakemusic.com. We hope you enjoy it! Also, if you haven't liked us yet on Facebook, please take a minute and do that here LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!

OUR LAST SHOW OF 2011 IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING!! It is Friday, December 2nd at The Magic Stick in Detroit and we couldn't be more excited about the bill. We will be sharing the stage with our good friends, Jessica Hernandez (and the Deltas), and The Juliets!! This promises to be an unmatched night of music and madness, and we hope you can be part of it (there is limited space in the Magic Stick, so make sure to get there early enough to assure you get in)!

We've had some other great shows recently, including our recent stop in NYC for CMJ week. We were lucky enough to play the Outlaw Roadshow at Arlene's Grocery, which was hosted by Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) and Ryan Spaulding (Ryan's Smashing Life). The show was amazing, and the bands were all stellar. Thanks to all the New York folk who came and partied with us.

We also headed to Ypsilanti recently where we shared the stage with our friends, The Juliets (thejuliets.bandcamp.com/) for their CD release party. They were incredible as always, and thanks to the other bands (Housephone and Lightning Love), the Ypsi locals, and an abundance of Red Bull, Two-Hearted and Shorts Humalumpalicious, that night became one for the books.

Finally, we are starting to prep for a major tour in March where we will be making our way over to the West coast and as many places in between as we possibly can. If you know of any spots along the way that we should be playing, please contact us at bearlakemusic@gmail.com

And for your listening enjoyment, check out the REMIX of our tune, SCISSORS, done by the legend, Mike E. Clark at our homepage (www.bearlakemusic.com)!!

Come Rain, Wind, Hail, Snow, or Ice

Well, the unimaginable trend of ridiculous weather plaguing BL shows has not been put to rest as of yet. We have a long running history of pretty remarkable acts of nature leaving their own imprint on Bear Lake. While not as devastating as the tornado that ripped the roof off of our practice space last year, the storm that rolled into the Royal Oak area Saturday night roughly 30 minutes prior to our set at Arts, Beats, and Eats was pretty crazy. Transformers were blowing, illuminating the pitch black sky green. Fences were flying through the air, tents were turned into soaring tarps, trees were down, power was out, festival was closed.

We patiently waited in the van and were informed we were being delayed 15 minutes. This seemed impossible. But sure enough, the storm passed. We started loading gear to the stage, which resembled a slip and slide, and it seemed like it was going to be a downpour at any moment. A light sprinkle continued, but the gates were re-opened, and a lot of spirited, determined, and mostly intoxicated people surrounded the stage; feeling like it was meant to be, we started playing. A serious amount of thank you's to all of you who endured the craziness of mother nature to spend an hour or so with us this past weekend.

Good news for those who were too chicken to risk a little lightning strike this past Saturday: we will be playing at Cheli's in Detroit this Friday Night. While we are unable to promise you good weather - because based on how things have been rolling as of the last couple of years, we would bet on rain - we can promise you that Cheli's has a roof. So unless we are seriously unlucky, it should be a great night of partying, hosted by 93.9 The River. Besides, we feel the chances are very slim that we could have our hands in two roofs being ripped off in one calendar year:)

-BL

Bear Lake Update

Hello fans and friends!

We are happy to report a successful summer tour. We had a blast and can’t wait to get back on the road. Atlanta, DC, Philly, and NYC were all great shows, and we met many friendly people. Chicago was a great way to Start the tour, and Chattanooga and Asheville were awesome southern cities. It was a great experience getting to share our music with so many people and seeing the amazing country we live in.

Since tour we’ve been writing and rehearsing getting ready to gear up for the next string of shows highlighted by such upcoming events as Arts, Beats & Eats, the Crofoot, and Mi fest. We’ve also been showing up on the CMJ charts lately and had a couple more tv placements on ABC’s Rookie Blue and Guliana & Bill on the Style network.

This September we will be playing mostly in MI. With the extra time that comes with not being on the road, we are going to be back in the studio. That's right, Bear Lake's fourth record is in the works. We have been writing a lot this summer and have songs that we are ready to record.

In October it's back to the road. We are planning on a longer tour this time and looking forward to seeing some new places as well as revisiting some of our old favorites. Until then, the best way to see us is around here, so check our website for dates (www.bearlakemusic.com). This Saturday we will be at the People and Arts festival in the Russel Industrial Center of Detroit. Hope to see you there.

--Bear Lake

If you could only see that Jessie's girl found out about you...

June 28th 2011

Wow, so where to begin? We’ve been busy since I last wrote one of these updates. Things are going well in Bear Lake land. Our CD release at the Magic Bag was an awesome time and the support of all of our families, fans, and friends gave our boners boners. Not in a sexual way mind you, but in a grateful for support kind of way, so lets start this off by giving you, the reader, a resounding "thank you!" You are kickass and I’m sure also really nice looking. It was great to share the stage with Brae, Deep See Soundsystem, and I Love Lightning Bugs as well, so your next waves to surf on the Internet should be sites containing their bodacious jams.

After the success of the Magic Bag, we've been feeling great and have had a really fun string of shows. These were highlighted by our most recent outing at the Shelter, where we opened for Bedouin Soundclash. We were honored to share the stage with such a top notch act and made lots of new fans and friends. (As a side note I’ve never misspelled the word friend due to my 3rd grade teacher telling me that a friend is someone you can eat fries with until the end…thanks Mrs. Patterson.) We also received delicious cookies after the show…thanks Rachel. She said that we should try to give the most cookies to Jon because he’s really skinny. Skinny, fat, or in between, the cookies were too good to pass up and I’m hoping there are some left in the van as I’m writing this. Oh, and I don’t want to leave out the magical "booya beads" given to us by a man who called himself Papa Smurf (if you've hung out at The Shelter around closing time, you've probably met him), so…thanks to Papa Smurf for the beads and for protecting our equipment. If you use capital S on word, it recognizes the word Smurf otherwise underlying red squiggly...weird.

In other news, our drummer (Steve Stetson) just celebrated his birthday which prompted him to tell the rest of the band that we should start lying about our age when people ask. So everyone in Bear Lake just turned 24…still young, hip, and in touch with the youth of the world if anyone’s asking. More info - for anyone asking - includes our upcoming tour dates. We start on the 12th in Chicago and finish in New York on the 20th, so come and catch one of the 8 shows in 8 cities in 9 days (there is a detailed listing below) and who knows what you may see on stage? We will also be opening up for some other interesting acts over the course of this summer including Rick Springfield, Tonic, The Gin Blossoms and other early 90's flashback-inducing bands, so needless to say these next few months are not to be missed. Come share them with us at a show or other social outing. We will be sending out a newsletter in the upcoming week with even more news, wit and wisdom, so sign up soon if you haven't already.

TOUR SCHEDULE:

Sunday, July 3 5:00 pm

Stars and Stripes Festival - Opening for Rick Springfield and Tonic

Budweiser National Stage: Mt. Clemens, MI, United States

• Saturday, July 9 5:00 pm
• Uncle Sam Jam - Opening for Gin Blossoms
• Budweiser National Stage: Woodhaven, MI, United States
• • 
    
  • Tuesday, July 12 7:00 pm
  • Bear Lake in Chicago
  • The Abbey: Chicago, IL, United States (MAP)
• 
  
• Wednesday, July 13 9:00 pm
• Bear Lake @ The Southgate House
• The Southgate House: Newport, KY, United States

• Thursday, July 14 9:00 pm
• Bear Lake in Tenessee
• JJ's Bohemia: Chatanooga, TN, United States

• Friday, July 15 8:00 pm
• The Highland Inn - Atlanta, GA
• The Highland Inn: Atlanta, GA

• Saturday, July 16 7:00 pm
• The LAB
• The LAB: Asheville, NC

• Sunday, July 17
• The Velvet Lounge
• The Velvet Lounge: Washington DC
• 
  
• Monday, July 18
• Bella Cafe
• Bella Cafe: Baltimore, MD
• 
  
• Wednesday, July 20
• Rockwood Music Hall
• Rockwood Music Hall: NYC, NY
• 
  
• Tuesday, July 26 8:00 pm
• Bear Lake in Grand Rapids
• Frederik Meijer Gardens: 1000 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI

• 
  

T-Shirts…the new underwear?

Before we get started, a quick piece of advice from Bear Lake to your hastily-reading face. If you’re ever in a big city, say Chicago for example, and a man wearing nothing but a t-shirt around his waist (exposing his bare ass) asks for a cigarette, just say no. Our friend Jesse would have loved to have been informed of the aforementioned knowledge prior to the night of our most recent show at the Double Door in Chicago. Maybe we’re making a mountain out of a molehill here, but after bumming this man a smoke Jesse’s hand was viciously raped in an attempt to steady the lighter as the hobo also needed one of those. (no pockets in T-shirts) It was later that the loin cloth wearing man informed us that he was an American doing American things in the Alley. I think the translation on this is that he was having sex with another hobo. The touch combined with this story led to Jesse washing his hands as if were about to perform life threatening surgery. And then the Magic Show began…not the Bear Lake show, but another hobo performing wonderful Magic Tricks, this was much more entertaining…and hygienic.

Most of these things happened post show. The show itself went well. The sound was great, we had a nice turnout (Thanks to all who came and partied!), and we met some really cool bands as well. We shared the stage with a great band out of Mexico City named, Sour Soul. If you have not heard of them, you should check them out (I think we are going to talk them into coming to Michigan to do another show with us); Their band kicked ass, and they were some of the nicest guys we have shared a bill with. We also shared the bill with Jeremy Thornton and his band, and J.W. Basilo (a great spoken word artist from Chicago). Jeremy Thornton is out of Atlanta and is also well worth checking out (They also happen to be extremely nice, down to Earth people; it seemed to be a theme of the night).

We’re all looking forward to our next big release show at the Magic Bag in Ferndale. It’s on Saturday the 21st and you should come out. We can’t stress this enough: Come to the Magic Bag on May 21st!! Also want to send a booya to Fearless Radio for being kickass. The interview was great and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.

Check it out on TicketWeb - Bear Lake with I Love Lightning Bugs & Brae at The Magic Bag on 05/21/11

Check it out on TicketWeb - Bear Lake with I Love Lightning Bugs & Brae at The Magic Bag on 05/21/11

How to make a Bear Lake Record

Preview Bear Lake's upcoming release, "If You Were Me" **HERE**

Have you ever wondered how a struggling indie band creates, promotes, records, and pays for an album? If not, then this newsletter is not for you. If you already know, then could you please send us an email detailing said process to bearlakemusic@gmail.com? We’re kind of figuring this whole thing out as we go. What’s that you say? We have already released two records? Well that may be true, but stop interrupting my train of thought. We would like to do it right this time.

That’s partly why I’m writing this newsletter. Our last two releases were doled out with the greatest of intentions, but we didn’t spend enough time or money on all the stuff besides the music. We’ve ended up with two solid albums that not enough people have heard. This is why people ask me the name of my band and I have to tell them “Bear Lake.” Then they say “Beer lake?” Then I say “no Bear Lake like the animal and the body of water.” Then they say “oh..ok.” Had we properly promoted the last album the conversation would be like this…They would say “Hey you’re that guy from Bear Lake.” Then I would say “Yes, yes I am.” It would save us both several seconds.

First, lets go back to last year around the time when we finally got in the black from the last record. Due to the fact that this is a band full of writers, we had a lot of material that we were hoping to record. By a lot of material, I mean that we had already written and demoed over 30 songs. Next, we put the songs through several rigorous tests before deciding on the final 12 tracks we would put on the next record. Writing and Recording is usually the easy part for us. Every other decision ends up being a hotly debated and highly contested issue. Track order, mixing, album artwork, and album title were all extremely contentious topics that resulted in several angry emails exchanged amongst band members. With the release date fast approaching, we’ve finally made all the essential decisions.

We are now ready for our two upcoming release shows on May 8th at the Double Door in Chicago and May 21st at the Magic Bag in Ferndale. We’re also planning on a radio promotions campaign combined with more extensive publicity to make this album a memorable release. So that’s how we’re doing it this time around. Feel free to spread the word, and come out for one or both of the aforementioned release parties. We hope you like the new record and we’ll be seeing you soon.

Preview Bear Lake's upcoming release, "If You Were Me" **HERE**